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Castlevania / Bloodstained

CantidoCantido Registered User regular
edited May 2019 in Games and Technology
This is a thread for Castlevania, and Bloodstained, produced by the developers of Castlevania who fled Konami for some reason! :D

Necessary Viewing - Castlevania Retrospective
Part 1 - I, II, III, and love for the movies

3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
Cantido on
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  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    So, can the low reviews be summed up as *Not enough Doritos* *Reviewers are nitpicky*?

    I'm interested in the game and enjoyed the first.

  • LanrutconLanrutcon The LabyrinthRegistered User regular
    The RPS Wot I think pretty much killed the last bit of interest I had in picking it up now. Not even sure I'll grab it on sale.

    Capture.jpg~original
    Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Reviewers are idiots would be more apt. This is a great game. The stealth sections that everyone hates are basically very small and short puzzle rooms used to just mix up the gameplay. There's also probably 20 minutes worth of them in this 15 to 20 hour game.

    They also work perfectly fine and are not hard. All of the reviews that dump on the game with a low score are doing so just because they don't like that they are even there.

  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited February 2014
    I agree, LoS2 is far better than the first, the complains about the few, far apart stealth sequences are overblown, and the combat and pacing are far beyond that of the first.

    More personal experiences on the stealth parts, yes the first one took me fifteen minutes to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, I swept the first area clean of all the hidden items and XP and was on my merry way.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
  • BadwrongBadwrong TokyoRegistered User regular
    C2B wrote: »
    So, can the low reviews be summed up as *Not enough Doritos* *Reviewers are nitpicky*?

    I'm interested in the game and enjoyed the first.

    I got the game on steam and played it a few hours yesterday.

    Game is fucking great, good combat, lots of metroidvania shit to find, etc.
    My credentials: I love video games.


    Mainstream reviewers apparently got stuck on some stealth section, didn't like the dracula story because reasons, still gave mixed scores despite saying its combat is great and the graphics look fantastic.
    Their credentials: They play video games, might like a few, but mainly stick to their arbitrary number score that can take a single negative and apply that to the entire game.


    Typical mixed reviews, game is good, has a few flaws, reviewers still have no fucking clue on how to say a game is good without bitching and moaning about the few flaws they found.

    Steam: Badwrong || Xbox: Duncan Dohnuts || PSN: Buc_wild

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Did the Toy Maker section last night after spending almost my whole evening backtracking with my new Mist ability to go through all the gates I could find, and found enough goodies to upgrade my void power once and my health and chaos power twice.

    I also got the best trophy and easter egg.
    Hitting the bird before Agreus with a Chaos fireball, cooks it leaving a nice plate of roasted bird complete with veggies that looks just like the wall meats of old, and gave me the trophy "Classic Flavor"

    I also did that terribly infamous Agreus section....in like 5 minutes. I rang the first bell to distract him and then just used the mist form to basically walk right to the objective with no trouble and just hung out on ledges out of his sight while it was on cooldown.

    Also, once you open the gate, if you just move directly up against the ledge right next to the switch Agreus will just run right past you and not even see you, leaving you free to just walk around the corner out of the area.

  • FreiFrei A French Prometheus Unbound DeadwoodRegistered User regular
    any goose can get a job as a reviewer. there are literally no qualifications for the job, as you can generally tell by the bottom barrel writing quality. even so, it is just one person's opinion, and I have absolutely no idea why so many "gamers" are so batshit crazy over reviews. somewhere along the line I think someone just pulled a fantastic trick in getting people to actually take this shit as gospel. this goes for EVERY GAME, whether you love it or hate or like the reviews or don't like them. it's silly. get impressions from your friends (or people who like the same things you do, in general) or just watch gameplay videos. those are the two things you have to do to make up your mind.

    I see people talking about how x site has more credibility than y site, and no, they don't. it doesn't matter what Joe Dickbutt at Gameshit Daily has to say. make up your own mind.

    Are you the magic man?
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    i would like to be a reviewer then

    someone hire me

    i have OPINIONS

    ALL THE OPINIONS

    So far the ionly things i don;t like about this game are the meters for life and magic power (I kept thinking I was at 50% when it was actually full and blocked; they should have just lengthened as you leveled them) and that terrible conversation between Dracula and Zobek at the beginning. Dracula came of as a total machismo poseur.

  • DerrickDerrick Registered User regular
    I think the reviewers are taking the piss on this one. It's a very solid game. I like it when they bitch about the camera that you can pretty much fully control. Look, douchebags, it's not the feature that sucks; it's you sucking at using it. Want to whine about a goddamn camera angle? Go play Dark Souls (if you even can) and get back to me.

    I know the part they got stuck on with the rats. I got stuck there a bit too, until I remembered the game straight up taught me how to get through that earlier. Wow, use your abilities to get past obstacles! That sounds like... every metroidvania game ever. -_-

    Seriously though, for anyone interested in the game, it's very solid. The combat is great. It's kind of got a Dark Souls feel with the parry blocking, but it's quite a bit easier. It's very good at making you feel like Dracula. I'm really digging all the work and art they put into the Lore journal as well. It really fleshes out the world.

    If you like this type of game, go ahead and pick it up. Remember, critics hated Conan the Barbarian, too. And that shit is the tits.

    Steam and CFN: Enexemander
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Well he was just putting on a front for Zobek and his lacky wasn't he? I imagine Dracula wants to murder him twice for every one time Zobek calls him "old friend".

  • WaltWalt Waller Arcane Enchanted Frozen ElectrifiedRegistered User regular
    From the RPS review, "so what in other fighting games is the holy grail of mastery – parrying enemy attacks and unleashing ye olde wrath" I just stopped reading there because I couldn't read the text while vomiting blood violently and uncontrollably.

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    Viskod wrote: »
    Well he was just putting on a front for Zobek and his lacky wasn't he? I imagine Dracula wants to murder him twice for every one time Zobek calls him "old friend".

    Yeah, but the execution of it just came of as lame. He acted like a 20 year old weight lifter trying to intimidate someone at the gym. I understand WHY he did it; the writing of it just didn't work. I expect Dracula to act classier then a slightly drunk hip hop artist is all. And in parts of the conversation he did which just made it more glaring.

  • SteevLSteevL What can I do for you? Registered User regular
    So I'm stuck pretty early in the game right now and feel like an idiot. Maybe someone can nudge me in the right direction.
    City of the Damned. I just got through that room where you fight a dungeon jailer and his minions for the first time. Unlocked the door and walked through and I have no idea where to go. The map is pointing me in the direction of an area that looks inaccessible to me. I can summon the wolf to go back to the science district, which I did, but it didn't seem like there'd be much for me to do there yet and I went back. I must be missing something obvious here.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    In that room with the Wolf circle back track to its entrance and instead of going left to where you climb to the Wolf thing, keep to the right and there will be a platform to jump on and chains to climb.

  • SteevLSteevL What can I do for you? Registered User regular
    Yup, figured it was something too obvious.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Viskod wrote: »
    Well he was just putting on a front for Zobek and his lacky wasn't he? I imagine Dracula wants to murder him twice for every one time Zobek calls him "old friend".

    Yeah, but the execution of it just came of as lame. He acted like a 20 year old weight lifter trying to intimidate someone at the gym. I understand WHY he did it; the writing of it just didn't work. I expect Dracula to act classier then a slightly drunk hip hop artist is all. And in parts of the conversation he did which just made it more glaring.

    Oh. That went totally over my head then. I just saw two guys who obviously did not like each other.

  • WybornWyborn GET EQUIPPED Registered User regular
    I didn't get that impression from that particular sequence either.

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  • WydrionWydrion Registered User regular
    edited February 2014
    Beat the infamous 'hedge maze' part that all the reviewers hated last night.

    No joke, beat it on the second attempt. Took all of ~3 minutes. I assume that the reviewer had his head firmly up his ass and didn't use an ability he unlocked just beforehand.

    Still surprised no one is mentioning a very particular boss death scene that I still think was in really poor taste.

    Edit: I also ran into a crash-to-desktop memory leak(?) that occurs once you get the opportunity to go back to
    Bernhard's Wing, the big room with the white wolf thingie in the center. I tried to go back to mist form through some bars
    for power ups and without fail it would crash in the same location, so I just gave up and hoped whatever was triggering it won't be there later on. :( dunno if anyone else ran into something like this yet.

    Wydrion on
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Yeah... I rolled my eyes pretty hard at that one. That was just dumb and not funny.

  • BadwrongBadwrong TokyoRegistered User regular
    edited February 2014
    Ever since Metroid on the NES, this type of game gives you and item and then either the room you are in or the next room requires use of that item to proceed.

    I can't take any review serious if they missed that simple concept.

    Badwrong on
    Steam: Badwrong || Xbox: Duncan Dohnuts || PSN: Buc_wild

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    Viskod wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Viskod wrote: »
    Well he was just putting on a front for Zobek and his lacky wasn't he? I imagine Dracula wants to murder him twice for every one time Zobek calls him "old friend".

    Yeah, but the execution of it just came of as lame. He acted like a 20 year old weight lifter trying to intimidate someone at the gym. I understand WHY he did it; the writing of it just didn't work. I expect Dracula to act classier then a slightly drunk hip hop artist is all. And in parts of the conversation he did which just made it more glaring.

    Oh. That went totally over my head then. I just saw two guys who obviously did not like each other.

    I'm crazy hyper-sensitive to that sort of stuff tho. It jumps out at me real darn quick.

    But yes they did not like each other and absolutely should not have.

  • cr0wcr0w Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    After thinking about the ending a bit last night, my initial lukewarm feelings had a lot to do with my expectations of the game's length compared to LoS, which is my fault since I did very little side stuff and binged on the story, which still took me 12 hours to finish. The ending itself still feels rushed to me, and not anything at all close to what Dave Cox promised when he said this was a definitive ending to the trilogy, but maybe that's by design. I don't know.

    I'm starting a new playthrough on a higher difficulty and doing absolutely everything now.

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    I only got stuck on a stealth section once so far, and when I figured out what to do I felt like a moron. The game clearly wants you to experiment with your powers to make it past the stealth areas, which are more like puzzles than anything else.

    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • MNC IrvingMNC Irving Registered User regular
    edited February 2014
    Jebral wrote: »

    Off topic edit: Wasn't the Wii Rygar just the PS2 one with waggle and a different skin for the player character?

    Mostly, yes. But the game had not aged well. Also, its one great system, the fighting, completely fell apart with tacked-on motion stuff simulating button presses that didn't have the good sense to work as the player intended. I actually liked the Wii and its controller quite a lot, and can probably stomach more motion mishaps than most folks, but Rygar was pretty unjustifiable.
    Wydrion wrote: »
    Beat the infamous 'hedge maze' part that all the reviewers hated last night.

    LoS 2 has a hedge maze?! I love hedge mazes, both real and digital. I even liked the hedge maze section of Castlevania 64 (which was really more of a fog maze, but you know).

    MNC Irving on
  • MNC IrvingMNC Irving Registered User regular
    Crap, double posted to the old thread by mistake.

  • never dienever die Registered User regular
    I don't understand how the reviews were this bad. It plays just as well as the first one, has pretty good combat, and the stealth sections I have enjyoed quite a bit because god damnit I'm dracula and I can turn into mist and rats and possess people!

    Seriously though, most of the flaws I've felt on this game are the same as the last one, some clunky story parts mostly.

  • cr0wcr0w Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Yeah, it has a sort of hedge maze. More like a garden full of red maples which, as a bonsai enthusiast, ended up being my favorite place in the game.

  • DeaderinredDeaderinred Registered User regular
    Viskod wrote: »
    Yeah... I rolled my eyes pretty hard at that one. That was just dumb and not funny.

    i instantly knew the internet was going to photoshop it.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    cr0w wrote: »
    The ending itself still feels rushed to me, and not anything at all close to what Dave Cox promised when he said this was a definitive ending to the trilogy, but maybe that's by design. I don't know.

    Word is Konami made them change the ending. The one in the game, is not the definitive ending that Mercury Steam intended.

  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    Lanrutcon wrote: »
    The RPS Wot I think pretty much killed the last bit of interest I had in picking it up now. Not even sure I'll grab it on sale.
    Did you enjoy the first game?

    If so, pick it up. It's just as good if not better.

    Pokemon GO: 7113 6338 6875/ FF14: Buckle Landrunner /Steam Profile
  • cr0wcr0w Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Viskod wrote: »
    cr0w wrote: »
    The ending itself still feels rushed to me, and not anything at all close to what Dave Cox promised when he said this was a definitive ending to the trilogy, but maybe that's by design. I don't know.

    Word is Konami made them change the ending. The one in the game, is not the definitive ending that Mercury Steam intended.

    That's exactly what it feels like.

  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    Company meddling in the ending?

    Not looking forward to that. Probably going to be awhile before I finish though, like to collect everything first.

    Pokemon GO: 7113 6338 6875/ FF14: Buckle Landrunner /Steam Profile
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Apparently we aren't the only ones who think some of the reviews for this game are pretty off. There is currently 160 positive user reviews for Lords of Shadow 2 at MetaCritic. People basically making reviews just to say "What the hell is up with these reviews."

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    Dr. Chaos wrote: »
    Company meddling in the ending?

    Not looking forward to that. Probably going to be awhile before I finish though, like to collect everything first.

    God I loathe when companies do that. It's almost always to leave the story as open ended as possible to make sequals possible. Just give us a good ending and a new story instead.

  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    edited February 2014
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Dr. Chaos wrote: »
    Company meddling in the ending?

    Not looking forward to that. Probably going to be awhile before I finish though, like to collect everything first.

    God I loathe when companies do that. It's almost always to leave the story as open ended as possible to make sequals possible. Just give us a good ending and a new story instead.
    Yeah but I will admit I can't complain too much if it opens up the door for Lords of Shadow: Alucard edition or something.

    Mercury Steam had a really cool take on him.

    Dr. Chaos on
    Pokemon GO: 7113 6338 6875/ FF14: Buckle Landrunner /Steam Profile
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    I would be perfectly happy if it was open ended in the sense that at the end of this game Dracula raises his castle from beneath this modern city, destroying most of it in the process, causing Alucard to flee, and then proclaiming himself Lord of Castlevania and the game closes with a recreation of the very first scene in the opening with Dracula sitting on his throne with that goblet and as soon as we hear the sound of something hitting his door and his eyes dart up to look at the screen the credits roll.

  • cr0wcr0w Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    The ending is a lot different than I expected, to be honest, but it's actually a refreshing change from the usual tone of the series.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Nice
    Victor Belmont was a fun boss too bad he died rather stupidly two seconds later

  • Shady3011Shady3011 Registered User regular
    Looks like there might be problems at Mercury Steam. This comes from an anonymous source that hasn't been verified yet. However, a user from Castlevania Dungeon has been in contact with this employee, and that forum has had a great track record with insider Castlevania info. The original post was made on a Spanish forum. The staff of that forum is trying to verify the user's identity, but some of the info he's released lines up with confidential info they've received.

    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=776423

    http://www.3djuegos.com/foros/tema/28947495/28/comentarios-del-analisis-de-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-ii/#mensaje29007966
    Well, I would like to shed some light over the development of this game... Working with Mercury Steam -and I would like to tell this anonymously- is about an everyday frustration. Here's to every guy that has experienced hell during the development of this game, but especially to those who have led this to the mess that Lords of Shadows 2 is:

    - Kojima had little to nothing to do with the development of the first game, he came by, set a seal, visited the studio, signed some things and that was it. He had even less to do with Mirror of Fate and LoS2.

    The vast majority of this team is aware that the game we've done is a real piece of shit that has nothing to do with the first one's quality and production values... Nobody is surprised by the low reviews we've got.

    - If there's someone to blame here, that's Enric Álvarez. He is the person who has led a broken development based on his personal criteria, completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists. Despite his nice look to the press, often considered as some sort of creative "visionary" in the looks of David Cage and Molyneux, this guy has serious problems. He is a mean and naughty guy, and since the "success Lords of Shadows 1" his ego has grown to the point of not even daring to say 'hello' when you meet him in the hallway.

    His distrust to his own workers is enormous. Most of the development team often found out features of the game through press news, rather than from the studio's head - unbelievable. And there is no corporate culture here at all... this is just a handful of people working blindly and at the disposal of an alleged visionary.

    - The studio's internal structure is archaic, still based on the old partners of the Scrapland days. I'll give you an example so you can see the full picture: the studio's signature engine (one with many flaws) was solely coded by two guys, one of them being a founder of the company and Enric's confident. Access for the new programmers to the source code to update or refurbish the engine is denied, so things are still done in a 10-year-old fashion.

    - Many of the studio founders are people with zero abilities for running a studio. Often here newbie developers know more than their own bosses. This structure only leads to a slow, messy and absurd development process, with the end result of Lords of Shadows 2 being a perfect example of what happens due to that.

    - Absolutely every design idea has to be monitored, taken away and mutilated by Enric Álvarez. Several game designers have grown tired of this and have abandoned the studio.

    - The art direction for this project has been erratic and beheaded. After Enric dismissed every idea and core decission from our main art director for the previous projects, he decided to just leave. It was a battle of egos unleashed by Enric (something that he has carried over with since his times in Rebel Act). Our now former art director is still working in Madrid, now with the Tequila guys making RIME.

    - Many others have just turned to other studios offers, sick of the situation here. Almost every month we see fellow devs packing up and getting out of here looking for a new job abroad -that's sad-. It's amazing how the biggest AAA game developer in Spain is not even willing to make its workers a counteroffer. This company does not think highly of its talented workers and their good work. There has never been any kind of salary bonus or anything that remotely resembles it. Not even a single "Good job team!" acknowledgement.

    - The production management for this project has been terrible, way often the heads of each department dismissed every production deadline and imposed their own criteria. As a result, the development was delayed for six months, and that investment only came out of MercurySteam's pockets.

    Many can't help comparing this situation to something similar that already happened in a company in which many of us worked: Pyro Studios (the team behind the Commandos saga). The QA department is treated like cattle, with shameful wages and almost everyday bullying.

    - Expectations for our future are quite bad... with a publisher like Konami really upset after the mediocre game we've made.

    - After completing Lords of Shadows 2 MercurySteam has fired 35 workers, and it's embarrasing that no website or journalist is talking about that. More firings are expected to come in the following days.

    - And finally, because not everything is bad in here, I wanted to say that the real team behind this company is an incredible bunch of people. If all those guys who are not allowed to be promoted due to our Jurassic studio leads had the chance to set the course of the company, our future would be so bright. There's just so much passion and talent here, more than I've ever seen anywhere else, but it's completely held back. I really hope that those who read this understand what we've lived here. Someone has to say this so it is not lost in time after the game's launch.

    Thank you for reading me.

  • JebralJebral The guy nobody pays attention to Down South in the land of free thinkingRegistered User regular
    I was reading about this earlier... Even if a lot of that kind of thing is the norm in the industry, still sucks to read about. If the game had a hellish development, well... They still pulled it off in my opinion. Lots of fun!

    Apparently Iga will be giving a GDC 2014 presentation on metroidvanias. Probably coincidental, but my brain can't help but find that weird.

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